The present invention pertains to cork extracting apparatus of the types generally disclosed in prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,276,789, 4,291,597, 4,377,096, and 4,429,444. My prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,276,789 and 4,291,597 disclose cork extracting apparatus of the type for which the term "self-puller" has been coined. A guide frame is provided for guiding a corkscrew into a cork and for limiting downward movement of the corkscrew with respect to the bottle. When the downward movement has been thus limited, the user continues to rotate the handle in the same direction as for driving the screw into the cork. Since the screw can move down no farther, the cork should, in theory, then climb threadedly upwardly on the corkscrew and out of the bottle.
It has been found, in practice, that self pullers prior to the inventions of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,276,789 and 4,291,597 did not always remove the cork satisfactorily in the intended "self-puller" manner. My prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,276,789 and 4,291,597 improved the operation of the self-puller by providing a friction-reducing coating on the corkscrew, which not only lessened the applied force required to drive the screw into the cork, but also helped to ensure that the cork would climb substantially all the way out of the bottle in the self-puller fashion, and again, with a reduction in the necessary applied force. Other improvements were provided, e.g. improvements in the guide frame, including means for gripping the bottleneck so as to better ensure correct alignment of the apparatus with the bottle.
My subsequent U.S. Pat. No. 4,377,096 discloses further improvements in this type of cork extracting apparatus. Specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 4,377,096 discloses a guide frame provided with catch means in the cork receiving space defined by the guide frame above the top of the bottle. The catch means engage the cork as it is climbing out of bottle and prevent it from rotating. Thus, the catch means not only further ensure that the entire cork is removed, by self-puller action, so that not even a little bit of pulling is required, but also prevent breakage of old and fragile corks, which might otherwise crumble into the wine.
FIGS. 13-16 of my prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,377,096 disclose an embodiment in which the corkscrew proper and attached handle are not removable from the guide frame as in the other embodiments, but rather, are interconnected with the guide frame by a set of rails. The edges of the rails also serve as the catch means. With this embodiment, the interconnection between the corkscrew and guide frame limits upward movement of the corkscrew with respect to the guide frame. This, coupled with the fact that the catch means will prevent rotation of a cork which has been removed from a bottle and is disposed in the cork receiving space or "window," allows the cork to be automatically ejected from the apparatus. More specifically, with the corkscrew in its uppermost position with respect to the guide frame, and still engaged with the cork, reverse rotation of the corkscrew (in the opposite direction as that used for removing the cork from the bottle) will cause the cork to climb threadedly downwardly along the screw.
Since the time of my prior inventions, as described just above, other cork extracting devices have appeared on the market utilizing various other means of interconnecting the corkscrew with a guide frame, and also incorporating some type of catch means, so that cork ejection could be accomplished by reverse rotation of the screw. However, a disadvantage of all of these devices, including that shown in FIGS. 13-16 of my own prior patent, is the relative complexity, and more specifically, the fact that substantial extra parts have to be added to the apparatus to interconnect the corkscrew and the guide frame.
British Patent No. 10,176 to Loach discloses a device which is somewhat more simple in that upward movement of the corkscrew with respect to the guide frame is accomplished by means of a shoulder formed on a straight shank integral with and extending upwardly from the corkscrew helix and carrying the handle at its other end. However, even this device involves disadvantages in terms of the unnecessary length and complexity associated with the use of the straight shank and the shoulder thereon.